DJ Spinn – Man I Do It EP [Planet Mu]

Given his label’s former involvement with rapid-fire breakcore and jungle-influenced sounds, it’s unsurprising that Planet Mu’s Mike Paradinas has latched onto Chicago’s footwork/juke sound – it shares the same sheer unrelenting intensity and purity of vision. But despite its incursion into dubstep circles via converts like Addison Groove and the legion of videos footcrabbin’ out of YouTube, it’s often been difficult for UK listeners to pick up a sense of footwork’s local context. The label’s recent Bangs & Works compilation went some way towards redressing that balance after the exhausting sprawl that was DJ Nate’s Da Trak Genious; DJ Spinn’s ‘2020‘ was particularly worthy, eschewing frantic vocal samples in favour of Blade Runner-ish sci-fi noir. His new EP for the label shares its careful balance of muscle and subtlety, bringing an R’n’B-ish ear for melody to the fore on ‘Studio’ and generating all-out dancefloor tunnelvision on ‘Fall Back’. Along with DJ Roc’s The Crack Capone, it’s the best of Mu’s footwork imports so far.